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Second best will no longer be good enough if Rangers are to become first among equals.

Stand-in skipper Connor Goldson laid it on the line to his team-mates after their title hopes were dented by that 2-1 defeat at Tynecastle.

Rangers lost on the road in the domestic game for the first time this season on a weekend in which they dropped to five points behind rivals Celtic.

Central defender Goldson and assistant Gary McAllister admit there is little room for manoeuvre if they are to wrestle the championship from Parkhead for the first time in nine years.

Rangers take on Ross County on Wednesday and retribution is at the forefront of Goldson’s mind as he targets a stretch run of league victories up to an including the Old Firm clash at Ibrox on March 15.

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Rangers failed to match the industry and endeavour of the Jambos at Tynecastle and the former Brighton star has demanded they never fall short again as they bid to secure 55.

Gers boss Steven Gerrard has already openly questioned the bottle of his players for the battle ahead and Goldson has warned they must deliver or face the consequences in the league race.

He said: “We need to put our game across first and we will not always out-football every team in the league.

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“The game-plan of Hearts worked well as they pressed us and made it hard for us to play out.

“When it gets like that, we need to show our intensity off the ball and not give it away as cheaply when we are in possession.

“We were second to a lot of the game and they wanted it more than us, which was the worst thing about it. That is what I said after the game in the changing room.

“On any day, we might not be the best footballing side and things might not go for us and we might not create 100 chances.

“But, at the same time, we can’t let a team want it more than us when we are going for a league title.

Critics reckoned they couldn’t possibly play as well at Celtic Park as they did at Hampden three weeks previously, but they proved them wrong by winning 2-1 with one of their most emphatic displays of the season.

Rangers lost at Kilmarnock in the first game back after last season’s mid-winter break, but that match alone didn’t prove ruinous to their title ambitions.

It was subsequent points dropped at home to St Johnstone, Hibs and Kilmarnock again that ultimately did it for their title challenge as Celtic pulled clear to win eight-in-a-row.

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Gerrard went through his squad after their Gorgie defeat at the weekend, said they carried eight passengers and bemoaned the fact they “blinked first” in the fight with Celtic.

Goldson added: “I wasn’t really surprised by the criticism because I was the same in the dressing room and the boys were the same with each other.

“We are not going to go in after performing like that and have a happy changing room and management staff. We understand what happened. We are not silly, we are not boys.

“We have a good group like that. We are all men and we all speak to each other with respect but we knew it wasn’t good enough.

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“Even the younger boys have been here for a while now, so they understand the situation and we know that if we want to win the title we can’t afford to play like that again.

“It is a comfort we have responded to previous setbacks. It shows the strength in our changing room.

“At this football club it is fortunate we have a game every three days so we don’t have to spend a week on the training round dwelling on a bad result.

“We need to look ahead and put on a performance against Ross County that our fans deserve after Sunday.